http://medicineworld.org/cancer/cancer-blog.html Cancer blog from medicineworld.org adds a personal touch to the stories related to cancer. This cancer blog brings you stories of hope, stories of survivors and latest news and research related to cancer. Tue, 13 Jan 2009 05:32:16 GMT en-us http://medicineworld.org/images/blogs/cancer-cells.jpg http://medicineworld.org/cancer/cancer-blog.html 82 90 http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/1-2009/new-clues-to-understanding-cancer.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/1-2009/new-clues-to-understanding-cancer.html Tue, 13 Jan 2009 05:32:16 GMT In the 13th January print edition of the journal Current Biology, Instituto Gubenkian de Ciencia scientists provide insight into an old mystery in cell biology, and offer up new clues to understanding cancer. Ins Cunha Ferreira and Mnica Bettencourt Dias, working with scientists at the universities of Cambridge, UK, and Siena, Italy, unravelled the mystery of how cells count the number of centrosomes, the structure that regulates the cell's skeleton, controls the multiplication of cells, and is often transformed in cancer........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/1-2009/insulin-levels-breast-cancer-risk.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/1-2009/insulin-levels-breast-cancer-risk.html Tue, 13 Jan 2009 05:32:16 GMT Higher-than-normal levels of insulin place postmenopausal women at increased risk of breast cancer, scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University report. Their findings, reported in the January 7 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, suggest that interventions that target insulin and its signaling pathways may decrease breast cancer risk in these women........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/1-2009/new-genes-that-fuse-in-cancer.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/1-2009/new-genes-that-fuse-in-cancer.html Tue, 13 Jan 2009 05:32:16 GMT Using new technologies that make it easier to sequence the human genome, scientists at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have identified a series of genes that become fused when their chromosomes trade places with each other. These recurrent gene fusions are believed to be the driving mechanism that causes certain cancers to develop........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/1-2009/new-evidence-for-warburg-theory-of-cancer.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/1-2009/new-evidence-for-warburg-theory-of-cancer.html Tue, 13 Jan 2009 05:32:16 GMT German scientist Otto H. Warburg's theory on the origin of cancer earned him the Nobel Prize in 1931, but the biochemical basis for his theory remained elusive. His theory that cancer starts from irreversible injury to cellular respiration eventually fell out of favor amid research pointing to genomic mutations as the cause of uncontrolled cell growth........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/1-2009/hormone-therapy-and-colorectal-cancer.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/1-2009/hormone-therapy-and-colorectal-cancer.html Tue, 13 Jan 2009 05:32:16 GMT The combination of estrogen plus progestin, which women stopped taking in droves following the news that it may increase their risk of breast cancer, may decrease their risk of colorectal cancer, as per a report reported in the recent issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/1-2009/cancer-prevention-raspberries.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/1-2009/cancer-prevention-raspberries.html Tue, 13 Jan 2009 05:32:16 GMT A study published in Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, identifies components of black raspberries with chemopreventive potential. Scientists at the Ohio State Comprehensive Cancer Center observed that anthocyanins, a class of flavonoids in black raspberries, inhibited growth and stimulated apoptosis in the esophagus of rats treated with an esophageal carcinogen........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/1-2009/healthy-cells-vs-cancer-cells.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/1-2009/healthy-cells-vs-cancer-cells.html Tue, 13 Jan 2009 05:32:16 GMT One of the current handicaps of cancer therapys is the difficulty of aiming these therapys at destroying cancerous cells without killing healthy cells in the process. But a newly released study by McMaster University scientists has provided insight into how researchers might develop therapies and drugs that more carefully target cancer, while sparing normal healthy cells........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/1-2009/breast-cancer-gene-linked-to-disease-spread.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/1-2009/breast-cancer-gene-linked-to-disease-spread.html Tue, 13 Jan 2009 05:32:16 GMT A team of scientists at Princeton University and The Cancer Institute of New Jersey has identified a long-sought gene that is fatefully switched on in 30 to 40 percent of all patients with breast cancer, spreading the disease, resisting traditional chemotherapies and eventually leading to death. The gene, called "Metadherin" or MTDH, is located in a small region of human chromosome 8 and may be crucial to cancer's spread or metastasis because it helps tumor cells stick tightly to blood vessels in distant organs. The gene also makes tumors more resistant to the powerful chemotherapeutic agents normally used to wipe out the deadly cells........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/1-2009/hope-for-cancer-straight-from-the-heart.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/1-2009/hope-for-cancer-straight-from-the-heart.html Tue, 13 Jan 2009 05:32:16 GMT Digitalis-based drugs like digoxin have been used for centuries to treat patients with irregular heart rhythms and heart failure and are still in use today. In the Dec. 16 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine now report that this same class of drugs may hold new promise as a therapy for cancer. This finding emerged through a search for existing drugs that might slow or stop cancer progression........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/1-2009/no-impact-on-the-treatment-outcomes.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/1-2009/no-impact-on-the-treatment-outcomes.html Tue, 13 Jan 2009 05:32:16 GMT In a first of its kind study, a first-degree family history of prostate cancer has no impact on the therapy outcomes of patients with prostate cancer treated with brachytherapy (also called seed implants), and patients with this type of family history have clinical and pathologic characteristics similar to men with no family history at all, as per a January 1 study in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics, the official journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/12-2008/no-cancer-prevention-potential-for-common-vitamins.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/12-2008/no-cancer-prevention-potential-for-common-vitamins.html Tue, 13 Jan 2009 05:32:16 GMT Women who took beta carotene or vitamin C or E or a combination of the supplements had a similar risk of cancer as women who did not take the supplements, as per data from a randomized controlled trial in the December 30 online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Epidemiological studies have suggested that people whose diets are high in fruits and vegetables, and thus antioxidants, may have a lower risk of cancer. Results from randomized trials that address the issue, however, have been inconsistent and have rarely supported that observation........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/12-2008/components-of-grape-seed-may-control-leukemia.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/12-2008/components-of-grape-seed-may-control-leukemia.html Tue, 13 Jan 2009 05:32:16 GMT An extract from grape seeds forces laboratory leukemia cells to commit cell suicide, as per scientists from the University of Kentucky. They observed that within 24 hours, 76 percent of leukemia cells had died after being exposed to the extract. The investigators, who report their findings in the January 1, 2009, issue of Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, also teased apart the cell signaling pathway linked to use of grape seed extract that led to cell death, or apoptosis. They observed that the extract activates JNK, a protein that regulates the apoptotic pathway........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/12-2008/taking-one-gene-at-a-time-in-lung-cancer.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/12-2008/taking-one-gene-at-a-time-in-lung-cancer.html Tue, 13 Jan 2009 05:32:16 GMT While examining patterns of DNA modification in lung cancer, a team of international scientists has discovered what they say is a surprising new mechanism. They say that "silencing" of a single gene in lung cancer led to a general impairment in genome-wide changes in cells, contributing to cancer development and progression........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/12-2008/hormonal-therapy-of-prostate-cancer.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/12-2008/hormonal-therapy-of-prostate-cancer.html Tue, 13 Jan 2009 05:32:16 GMT The hormone deprivation treatment that patients with prostate cancer often take gives them only a temporary fix, with tumors commonly regaining their hold within a couple of years. Now, scientists at Johns Hopkins have discovered critical differences in the hormone receptors on prostate cancer cells in patients who no longer respond to this treatment. The findings, published in the Jan. 1 issue of Cancer Research, could lead to a way to track disease progression, as well as new targets to fight prostate cancer........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/12-2008/nanoparticles-aimed-at-cancer-goes-with-a-glitter.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/12-2008/nanoparticles-aimed-at-cancer-goes-with-a-glitter.html Tue, 13 Jan 2009 05:32:16 GMT Using tiny gold particles and infrared light, MIT scientists have developed a drug-delivery system that allows multiple drugs to be released in a controlled fashion. Such a system could one day be used to provide more control when battling diseases usually treated with more than one drug, as per the researchers........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/12-2008/are-chemotherapy-errors-common.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/12-2008/are-chemotherapy-errors-common.html Tue, 13 Jan 2009 05:32:16 GMT Seven percent of adults and 19 percent of children taking chemotherapy drugs in outpatient clinics or at home were given the wrong dose or experienced other mistakes involving their medications, as per a newly released study led by Kathleen E. Walsh, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and reported in the January 1, 2009 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology....... ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/12-2008/speed-spread-of-lung-cancer.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/12-2008/speed-spread-of-lung-cancer.html Tue, 13 Jan 2009 05:32:16 GMT New research in an animal model suggests that a diet high in inorganic phosphates, which are found in a variety of processed foods including meats, cheeses, beverages, and bakery products, might speed growth of lung cancer tumors and may even contribute to the development of those tumors in individuals predisposed to the disease........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/12-2008/cancer-drug-bortezomib-find-new-uses.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/12-2008/cancer-drug-bortezomib-find-new-uses.html Tue, 13 Jan 2009 05:32:16 GMT Scientists have discovered a new treatment for transplant patients, targeting the antibody-producing plasma cells that can cause organ rejection. Results of the study are reported in the Dec. 27, 2008, edition of the journal Transplantation Steve Woodle, MD, and his colleagues observed that a cancer drug bortezomib used to treat multiple myeloma, or cancer of the plasma cells, is effective in treating rejection episodes caused by antibodies that target transplanted kidneys and reversing rejection episodes that did not respond to standard therapies........ ]]>